Shakespeare Coursework

In this coursework I am going to imagine I am a director of a film version of “Romeo and Juliet”. I am going to focus on how I would depict one of the main characters. I have chosen to do a film version of the play as I would have more control of how I would portray my chosen character, using film craft e.g. Camera angles, music location and special effects. Also I can hire famous actors whereas if I were doing a theatre production I wouldn’t have the ability to. Another advantage of using a famous actor would be that it would draw viewers, which would make more profit. With it being a film I can really choose any location in the world or even not of this world, which would make the film more realistic. Also special effects would be used to my advantage and make the film more intriguing and add the option of setting the film in a more futuristic environment or in any time period I might be willing to choose. Another thing I have to consider is casting. I will have to be careful who I choose to play the part of my chosen character as I would have to keep in my mind what films they have starred in previously, for example you would not want someone like Al Pacino to play the part of a character like Benvolio, as Al Pacino has the reputation of playing the roles of a hard man gangster where Benvolio is a peace maker and a kind, gentle character, so the two people would not match. Also for the parts of Romeo and Juliet, the actor/actress would have to be at least a little attractive, to again draw a good size of an audience in. another advantage of choosing to direct a film version is that I can also use camera angles for different effect, for example in a dramatic scene, the camera could zoom into the actors face. Music could also produce different qualities like in a romantic scene, a more seductive, sensual and calming song or a piece of music could be played. Whereas in an action scene a more fast paced and a more dramatic piece of music could be used. I will also have to decide on the costumes of the character I have chosen. The colour and style of the clothing also sets an image for the character. Normally red is associated with sensual, sexuality or even devious, whereas something like a white dress symbolizes innocence, naive and angelic images. The director Baz Luhrman has given me a lot of inspiration about how to lay the play out. He has made me realise that “Romeo and Juliet” doesn’t have to be set in the historic period of which Shakespeare intended it. Also that you could change bits of the play to make the audience have different opinions of the characters, for instance in Baz Luhrman’s adaptation, Romeo does not murder Paris at the end of the play, which makes the audience more sympathetic on Romeo’s behalf. In this coursework I really want to experiment with costumes and make the play original and be like no one else before has portrayed it.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The first thing I have decided to do is to choose who I want to play my character. I have chosen Juliet as my character as she is one of the leading characters so she has a lot of involvement in quite a lot of scenes. Also personally I find she is intriguing as in the way that she gives the impression she is innocent and loved up, but if you really look into the scenes, you can see how actually she is quite controlling of Romeo. An example of this is in act 3 scene 5, where Juliet persuades Romeo to stay after he spends the night with her. She says “Therefore stay yet, thou need’st not be gone.” But then when he decides to stay she says “O now be gone; more light and light it grows.” And makes him go. I would like to bring this side of Juliet out which will hopefully bring new light into the play. I have also considered adding more humour to the character of Juliet. I would find this quite weird though as I have never known a production to do something like this. The only problem with this idea though, is that it won’t work quite as well in the more sombre scenes. Another way I could delineate Juliet’s character is if I choose to set the film in the era of 1920’s gangster America with the most famous actress of all time, known as Marilyn Monroe to play the part of Juliet. Although I think this is an excellent idea, I don’t really have enough knowledge of this time period. So I have decided to set the film in a period of time where I know quite a bit of and what I am interested in. to me this is late 1970’s London’s punk era. This will fit in well with my idea of bringing out Juliet’s controlling, rebellious side. To play the part of Juliet I have decided that I want the actress Alyson Hannigan to play the role.

I think the costumes of Juliet play an important role in my production, as previously Juliet has been seen to wear white innocent clothing, while in my production Juliet will be wearing constantly her precious “Dr Martens” which will be worn in various colours to show her mood (and more importantly to match her clothing). Another thing that will be worn in a variety of colours is Juliet’s hair. I think at the beginning in act1 scene 3 when Juliet is first introduced I have decided to make her hair aqua blue and make her wear bright aqua blue Dr Martens with luminous yellow laces with plain black tights and a short pleated tartan skirt. She will also be wearing a plain “ragged” black top. Makeup, piercing and accessories will also have to be considered. I think Juliet will have her ears pierced several times, safety pins and silver and purple hoops will be worn. Juliet will also have her left eyebrow pierced twice with two silver hoops worn in each hole. She will wear the same jewellery throughout the film. Also to fit the setting of the play instead of meeting at Lord Capulet’s feast, Romeo and Juliet will meet at a Sex Pistols gig. (The Sex Pistols were a famous punk band around the time of 1977). For this gig Juliet will be wearing shocking pink Dr Martens with flared tartan trousers with a dark blue belly top with long sleeves draped a little at the end. The neck of the top will be low cut to give a type of “vixen” type of look. At the beginning of act 4 scene 2 where Juliet is alone in her room thinking about the poison she is just about to take, she will be wearing a light baby blue nightdress, which gives a different point of view about Juliet. She will have the image of baby like, as in the fact the she doesn’t know what to do and that she hasn’t thought about the consequences.

As I have changed the time and place setting from the original play, I will have to make a lot of changes to where the main events happen. For example as I said before, instead of it being Capulet’s feast in the Capulet’s mansion where Romeo and Juliet meet, I have change it to a Sex Pistols gig at Wembley arena. They both meet when their eyes cross and they end up being pushed together by the large crowd and decide to leave the gig so they can talk to each other more properly. Both the Montague’s and the Capulet’s live in big London Houses, but both Romeo and Juliet hang around on the suburban streets where their friends live. The famous balcony scene will also be changed to be situated at a underground (not literally) punk club which conviently has a balcony. In this scene you will see the use of drugs being used as Juliet has a couple of hits from a bong before she speaks to Romeo. Romeo also at various parts of the play, smokes on a joint and other various instrument used for smoking dope. This was probably a very common thing in the 70’s/ for this scene Juliet will be wearing a dark red vest top with a blue skull and cross bone picture in the centre of the top. She will be wearing blue baggy jeans with a black buckle belt. In this scene Juliet will not be wearing her Dr Martens but instead black work boots with the laces untied (even though the viewer won’t be able to see the footwear for the jeans). Her hair will hang loosely down her face in loose ringlets and will be coloured bright red. Around her neck she will be wearing a white chocker.

The language is going to have to be changed dramatically. It is going to have to be changed into English slang. Also Alyson Hannigan is going to have to take lessons so she can talk with a cockney English accent as she is American. I think the change of language might bring a bit of humour into the play without the intention as the viewers will probably expect it to be in Shakespearean language and will be surprised to hear Juliet saying “where the bloody hell is that Romeo of mine” instead of the “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” In act 1 scene 3, where Lady Capulet is discussing how old Juliet is, her mother calls her and instead of answering “How now? Who calls?” Juliet will answer like “Who wants me now?” Then she goes on to say “Right I’m here now so what do you want, I’m doing my hair” in an annoyed voice as a normal teenager would. To her parents she will also answer to them with a annoyed tone as she does not want any involvement with them as she feels as though they don’t really love her as they never take any notice of her and are to involved with their own lives. I am also going to add parts in to keep in the idea of Juliet being a rebellious teenager. For example I will add more bits of her mother having something bad to say about everything she does like the way she dresses, the way she did her hair that day. Lady Capulet will always being saying things like “I remember when you were a little girl and you would look so pretty in your dresses but now look at you, you look awful” but by this time Juliet would have been use to these comments and just walk out the door to go see her friends or just mumble a comment under her breath. Then on the other hand when she is with her friends there will be a mixture of boys and girls there so Juliet just acts more with more like herself. A main topic of conversation with her friends is a “posh geek” which goes by the name of Paris. Of course Juliet tells her friends gossip so she ends up telling them about her dad wanting to marry him. But before this though, Juliet and her friends would be mocking certain lads that would walk pass and one time one of them would happen to be Paris, and Juliet would say something like “Oh God would you look at that? I can’t believe how some people think money is so important these days.” So when she finds out that her dad wants her to marry Paris she hits the roof and does the usual shouting and screeching of a teenage girl, when her father goes to strike her she stops his hand and throws it back at him and says “Don’t ever try to touch me again or you’ll get what you deserve”

The actions of Juliet are also very important. When she is annoyed she will cross her arms and give whoever or whatever she is annoyed at a dirty look. This is the sort of side I want to bring out of Juliet, make her seem like a normal teenager (very moody) and more independent. This version will be more of how the world works nearer to the present day and will hopefully be more understood by the audience whatever age, although I think this film will be more appealing to people of 16 and above. When Juliet first meets Romeo at the gig and when they go outside to talk she will be always stroking his arm and giving him sensual looks with her eyes. When she is not touching him she will be fiddling with her sleeves and look a tiny bit nervous. In the scene where her dad goes to strike her, she will storm out the house in a fit of rage and go to a club to get things off her mind. This is another scene where drugs will be involved, the audience will see Juliet and some of her friends go into the woman’s toilets and roll up a joint and it gets passed round the circle of friends. I know some people will disagree with the showing of drugs being used in the film but it has been shown with more hardcore drugs like crack cocaine and heroine used in other films, this is why I would think my film would be a certificate of 15.

Music will have a lot to do in my film production. So when the film is released I will bring out a soundtrack album which will include bands like Sex Pistols, The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers, The Undertones, Ramones, Jilted John, The Distillers, Rancid and loads more, all of the songs which were used in the film will be included in the soundtrack, but then there will be extra songs added to make a decent sized track list. This will again make more profit. One of the songs included in the soundtrack will be Sex Pistols-God Save The Queen, which would have been playing at the gig. Also at the club scenes only hard-core punk will be played these include:

The Undertones-Teenage Kicks

The Distillers-The World Comes Tumblin’ Down

Jilted John-Jilted John

Rancid-The Wars End

Sex Pistols-Pretty Vacant

The Distillers-Ask The Angels

Throughout the film, miniature guitar solos from different songs will be played.

With the language been completely changed and not remotely similar to the original script, the language has lost its captivating

Quality, but I think it this will be ok and the film will pull through. Times have moved on from the time of Shakespeare and the ways of how people run their lives has as well. I think this version will be understood by many people and will stay get the storyline across. On the other hand I don’t think some people will approve of the changes I made, and they will think the changes to the language have been to extreme, but I think the changes I made to the language fits in perfectly to the new setting of the play. I don’t think the film would be successful if a cockney punk was talking in Shakespearean English. If the general public don’t like the film then that’s how it goes, but I don’t think I will change the way I would direct films (making radical changes to the script) I want to explore the possibility and effects of the changes I make. I’m sure the film will have no problem in attracting a wide audience as I think people will be intrigued to find out how a director could change the most famous romantic plays into a hard core punk frenzy. The film will also contain quite a bit of swearing which again will not be approved as I don’t think Shakespeare would not of approved of, but again I don’t think a punk in the 70’s would not of included swearing in any part of their speech. I have enjoyed thinking about what outfits I could make Juliet wear. For many of my ideas I have had inspiration from Baz Luhrman’s film adaptation of the play. He showed how you don’t have to stick to the original script and could really do what you wanted to do and interoperate the play how you wanted it to be…no matter how extreme.